The questions of this prisoner echo doubt we sometimes face, too

By Dean Collins

Sometimes you lose your confidence. Sometimes when things don’t happen as you imagined or understood they would happen, you might have doubts. I imagine that if you are in prison for doing what your beliefs showed you or called you to do, and the rumors suggest you are likely to be executed, you certainly might have questions about your understanding of the grand plan. It was these questions that prompted John the Baptist to have his disciples ask this question:

“Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?”

This wasn’t about succession planning. John wasn’t told to prepare the way for another prophet. He was preparing the way for a Messiah. The Messiah. The one all the prophets and the psalmists described in their writings. The one all of the Jewish people hoped for.

Luke tells us in his Gospel that John basically grew up in the wilderness. This may have inspired his fashion choices! He wasn’t a city kind of guy. We know Jesus and John were cousins, but we don’t have any evidence they got together for family celebrations. We do know that Jesus and John spoke at the Jordan River when Jesus came to be baptized. It was there that John saw Jesus and witnessed what Luke described as the Holy Spirit in bodily form descend on Jesus like a dove. He also heard the voice of God confirm that Jesus was his Son and he was pleased with him.

We have questions, too

This sounds like everything you would need to be confident you prepared the way for the right guy. It doesn’t get much better. But we can relate to John’s questions because we’ve had our own. If you have followed Jesus very long you have felt the joy, the love, the grace of his forgiveness. You have walked in faith and seen evidence of his hand on you. But when the hard things come or when the desert experience happens, you can start to question. When the plans don’t work out and the mission looks undone and you realize you won’t be around to see it through, you can have doubts.

There is nothing wrong with questions and doubts. John the Baptist did the right thing and the wise thing; he asked his question. And he asked the only One who could answer it. He couldn’t go himself, so he sent his disciples to Jesus. Are you the one? Or should I look for another?

We see so many needs

Kingdom work is hard to quantify. Sure, you can count church plants and mission trips. You can count Bible translations and baptisms. You can count meals served and medications given. But no matter how you count, you eventually look out and see more needs than you and your church or organization can meet. And all of us eventually will get to an age where we have physical, mental, and financial limitations. We actually always have those, but, eventually we realize them, especially when they become painfully obvious in our later decades of life.

These moments may lead to doubts. Did I get it right? Did I do my best? Did I follow what Jesus called me to do?

We may miss what God is doing

When John’s disciples got to Jesus with the questions, we learn two things.

1) In the hour they arrived and had the conversation, Jesus healed many people of diseases, plagues, and evil spirits. And he restored the sight of many who were blind.

It’s probably good for us to consider that while we are having our doubts and when we finally get the courage to tell God we have doubts, he will have also done what Luke described. God is moving in many places and many ways all through our doubts. He is active, spreading his Kingdom in every moment. He is not confined to our vision nor required to keep us informed of all his activities.

2) Jesus told the disciples to go tell John what they saw and heard. He listed several things: the blind see, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the poor have good news preached to them.

Our circumstances may cloud what we see, hear, and know. But that doesn’t mean God has stopped working even when we feel stuck or discouraged. And maybe here is where we who aren’t stuck or troubled by doubts have the responsibility to share what we see God doing for the sake of the person who can’t see it at the moment.

We can encourage the doubter

I would like to think John got this message back from his friends before he faced his death. But as I think about it, I want to be the kind of friend who brings encouragement to others who have doubts and unanswered questions. As followers of Jesus, we can follow the example of our loving Jesus who brought hope to those who have moments of hesitation or doubt.

The apostle John years later wrote some very encouraging words for us to remember: “Beloved, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. And everyone who thus hopes in him purifies himself as he is pure” (1 John 3:2-3).

Go to Jesus with your questions and doubts. If you are not sure you can, share them with another believer. Jesus will meet you with his love and assurance. And one day we will see him face to face, and every weight and concern will fade away.

 Your time with God’s Word
Luke 7:18-23 ESV

This post first appeared October 28, 2021.

Photo by bruce mars on Unsplash

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